This past Saturday, I attended my first expat blogger meetup! I was lucky enough that the location for this meetup was right in Heidelberg :) I had stumbled upon the meetup via a series of tweets I had seen from some bloggers I follow (so I might have invited myself…;) ). Seriously, the blogging world is so big yet so small! It was so much fun meeting up with everyone…especially because we all came to Germany for different reasons and have a variety of occupations.
It was fun to have everyone in Heidelberg because a) I got to be the unofficial tour guide and b) I finally did all the “tourist-y” things I should have done months ago! We started the day by hiking up to Schloss Heidelberg (Heidelberg Castle). The weather was supposed to be rainy but it held off all day and the sun actually peaked out in the afternoon. I’ve done a few posts before on Heidelberg Castle but see something new each time I go! This time, there was a wedding going on at the castle! It was so gorgeous :) Mom and Dad, I’m getting ideas… ;)
The Heidelberg Castle and the gorgeous neighborhoods surrounding the Heidelberg Castle!
After the castle, we headed into town for lunch at Cafe Knösel! I had such a delicious Flammkuchen (sort of like a really, really thin crust pizza). The cafe is the oldest cafe in Heidelberg and serves a lot of traditional German food!
We then headed to the Alte Brücke to take some pictures together. The bridge also gave us some really good views of the Neckar (river) and castle!
We walked from the Alte Brücke to the Studentenkarzer (student prison) in Heidelberg. I’ve been wanting to visit the student prison but have been too lazy to actually check it out! Man, have I been missing out. The prison was in operation from 1836 – 1914. Students were jailed for an array of offenses including disorderly conduct (aka being drunk in public), throwing rocks and/or stones, messing with police officers, etc. Students were only allowed bread and water for the first two days. Afterwards, their friends could bring them any kind of food they wanted…including beer! Also, students would bring in their own mattresses and other objects to make the cells more “homely.” The students could leave the prison for class, however some would purposely get locked up to miss class and/or exams! Most of the students documented their crimes on the walls via poems, odes, or other short stories.
The majority of students locked up were fraternity men or men of other university societies. The fraternity men were quite proud to be locked up and the majority of designs on the wall were signed with different fraternity logos, signatures, or symbols. The students could be locked up anywhere from a few days to four weeks, depending on the severity of the crime. Ironically, only men were ever sent to the jail!
Our ticket for the student prison also included admission to the university museum. I learned that the University of Heidelberg has produced 43 Nobel Prize winners (for Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Peace, and Literature), making the University of Heidelberg #13 worldwide in terms of the most Nobel Laureates produced by a university (fun fact, Wash U is #27)! Also, there was some amazing photography of the University of Heidelberg from the Nazi Era. It was amazing to see the transformation that took place at the university. I also took pictures of the Alte Aula (old auditorium) where the Master’s graduation ceremony took place the night before. However, I didn’t manage to get any good pictures during the ceremony so I snuck back in and took some!
I walk by this square every day and have classes in the building on the left. This is what the square looked like during the Nazi Era
We ended our day by getting froyo! My friend, Natalie, told me about this froyo place in Heidelberg and I’ve been wanting to try it ever since. Seriously, froyo was one of my main food categories when I was in college :) And let me say, this place did not disappoint!
It was a lot of fun meeting up with all these people and I enjoyed swapping expat stories with them. Plus I got some really useful travel hints and app suggestions (thanks Steven!). Hopefully we can meet up again sometime in the future. Until then, I highly recommend that you check out their blogs as well!
- Frau Dietz of Eating Wiesbaden
- Steven of Doin’ Time on the Donau
- Kathleen of Lehrer Werkstatt
- Charlotte of Sherbert and Sparkles
- Bev of Confuzzledom
It’s awesome that you took advantage of that opportunity! #bloggersunite :)
yay! The blogging community is the best :)
That frozen yoghurt looks gooood – I’m sorry to have missed out. Maybe you can bring one with you when you come to babysit the Mini Dietz ;) Lovely to meet you, and I’m retrospectively jealous of your Flammkuchen!
I definitely need to come visit you and Mini Dietz this summer! I can take him off your hands for a few hours :) I’ll bring a flammkuchen in exchange for Mini Dietz…hahaha!
Ha! You’d be very welcome to – no Flammkuchen necessary :)
I was so happy to have you “invite” yourself. Didn’t we all? I loved getting the student perspective. I always wondered how foreign students were treated by locals in Heidelberg.
It was great meeting you as well and I’m glad I could help with the “student perspective” :)
I should have got you to take a photo of my frozen yoghurt… that’s how you get a good one ;-)
The Flammkuchen looks so tasty that I want to eat another one right now.
After fours years of eating frozen yogurt multiple times at week at uni, I’ve perfected the art of frozen yogurt photo taking :) hahaha. Great meeting you!
Great Heidelberg photos, what an amazing day you all had! I just had dinner but now seeing your Flammkuchen I’m hungry again. :)
Thank you! It was a lot of fun and the flammkuchen was delicious. If we have another meetup, you should definitely join us :)
We’re all happy you stumbled onto our plans to visit on Twitter. Great pics!
Thanks! It was great meeting you and thanks for all the app suggestions :)
Flammkuchen is always a good decision – wish I could’ve been there. I may be around May 9, so will holler if so!
Ugh, I’m so behind on my comments and just realized that you might have been in Heidelberg this past weekend (?) We missed you at the meetup! Maybe I’ll have to take a trip to come meet you at some point :)
Greetings from Oman!
Thank you for stopping by!
Looking at your flammkuchen is making me wonder if I made the wisest choice with the salad:-) I wish I’d taken paid more attention to the museum – I had no idea so many Nobel prize winners studied at Heidelberg and the Nazi era pics are food for thought, I mean the buildings haven’t changed so much and brings it all home. Really enjoyed meeting you and thanks for showing us all around. If the whole political science thing doesn’t work out, a career in tourism awaits :-)
Great meeting you as well! That flammkuchen was so delicious…I must go get some more one of these days :) If you ever come back to Heidelberg, we’ll get some flammkuchen together :)